


I Chose You

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Series: 31 Days of Ficmas 2020 [29]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Anger, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Christmas Decorations, Established Relationship, F/F, Jealousy, Jodie Whittaker is The Master (Doctor Who), Possessive Behavior, Texting, broken decorations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:42:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: The Master is furious to find out that the reader has been texting The Doctor.
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Reader, The Master (Doctor Who)/Reader
Series: 31 Days of Ficmas 2020 [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035468
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	I Chose You

Shattered glass lined the TARDIS floor, the colourful baubles from Terazon Epsilon and crystalline figurines gifted by Ramoxi diplomats crushed into tiny pieces. All the festive decorations you had so painstakingly places around the ship – the pretty candles, paper chains and permanently frozen ice statues – had been completely destroyed.

It looked like a hurricane had passed through the console room, whipped everything into the air and smashed it against the hard, sharp surfaces of the ship then moved on without ever looking back. Only, it wasn’t a freak weather event that had caused this. No, the cause of the destruction was still standing in the centre of the space, looking down at the chaos without a single hint of satisfaction.

You hurried over to The Master, glass and paper crunching beneath your boots. However, when you tried to take her hands and ask what had happened, The Master ripped them away from yours, absolutely furious. “No. Get your grubby human hands off of me.”

Perhaps another time you might have implored her to be reasonable, to take a breath and tell you exactly what was going through her mind. However, in that moment, you knew your attempts to soothe the raging anger would only end in disaster. Your best case scenario would be walking away with your limbs and organs in tact. The worst case didn’t bear thinking about.

Slowly you backed away, hands in the air, placating but also a physical barrier between you. Although the Master was rarely violent with you – physically rough, perhaps, as she tossed you out of the line of danger; threatening and overbearing when you overstepped the line, always, but actively choosing to hurt you? Almost never – you couldn’t be 100% certain that this time you would walk away unscathed.

It wasn’t her rage that scared you, not really. You had stood by her side for enough years to grow acclimatised, for better or worse, to that particular brand of awe inspiring, terrifying energy. You’d watched as she had turned that blazing fire on lesser planets, engulfed them and burned every aspect of their civilisation to ground. You had danced together in the falling ashes, smiled as the black snow coated your skin and she found a few moments of peace in the destruction.

This was something different, though. This wasn’t a loud cry of anger or the screaming rage of a Time Lord offended by the very existence of primitive life forms clamouring for her attention. It was compacted, tight and quiet. The sort of emotion that one held deep in their heart – or, in her case, hearts – and allowed to fester like a cancer until ever cell in their body was twisted and black with hatred.

Backed against the wall with nowhere to run, you kept your head high. A foolish, ultimately fatal decision you supposed but she had taught you never to bow down to any threat, not even her own. You would face this whatever was about to transpire with courage even if it was the last thing you did. In fact, if this was to be the end, it was so much more important to leave this world bravely. Not fearless in the slightest, but brave regardless.

“Will you please tell me what I’ve done to upset you?”

She tossed your mobile at your feet. The screen was already shattered, no doubt broken alongside your decorations, but the image beneath was clear as day. A set of texts with The Doctor. “ _Him._ Of all the miserable people in the universe, it had to be him.”

Your eyes never left hers as you bent down to pick up what was left of your phone. Mindlessly, you traced the cracks on the screen as you fought the confusion currently clouding your mind. She knew that you’d travelled with The Doctor before. It was from his very TARDIS that she enticed you to run away with her. It was no secret that you knew the other Time Lord.

“I don’t… Master, you already knew that we were fr-” You caught the word but too late. She’d heard.

It would have been better if she’d stormed across the console room, grabbed you by the throat and tossed you to the ground. You could have coped with that. Hell, in other circumstances it might have been fun. But instead you were faced with a silent, seething glare that instantly transported you back to being a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, crumbs over their clothes and guilty glint in their eye.

“Say it. Finish that thought.”

“I didn’t mean -”

_“Finish it.”_

You flinched at the order, her words a physical blow against you. Stumbling over your answer, you muttered your reply: “ _Friends._ You knew that The Doctor and I were friends.”

“‘Were’ being the operative word. I thought you’d chosen me. Tossed him aside and ended whatever pathetic relationship he was offering to be with me, to be _mine._ ”

You shook your head, an anger of your own rising to meet hers. It didn’t have the weight of thousands of years behind it but it burned bright and strong in your gut, fired you up for a fight. Only, you didn’t want to fight with. You never did. You only wanted to set the record straight, to help her see that there really wasn’t anywhere else you would rather be than by her side.

Toying with the chain around your neck, the finest Obsydian Crystals pulled from the heart of a black hole and beaten into the most intricate design specifically to declare your bond with The Master, you glanced up from the ground and met her intense gaze. She softened for a brief moment as her attention fell to the necklace, its meaning almost enough to snap her out of her rage.

You jumped on the change, not willing to waste a moment of her calmer mood. You fingers ran over the central charm as you confessed, “My heart is yours, Master. It has been for years but I am _suffocating_ in this bubble that we’ve created. It cannot just be you and me against creation. The things we see, the stuff we do… I needed an outside perspective to process some of it and there is no one in the universe that understands you quite The Doctor.”

Mention of her best-enemy snapped her dark mood back into place. “He doesn’t know anything about us.”

“Of course he does,” you laughed softly, nervously. Regardless of whether she approved or not (and she most decidedly did not, if her reaction to this entire situation was anything to go by), The Doctor had never stopped being your friend. It had taken time for him to understand why you had left to travel with The Master but once he realised that she cared, and that you were undeniably good for her, he had been only kind.

As the months passed, you told him everything, discussed the places you had been and told him all of the different ways that The Master made you happy. He stopped checking in so often, content to believe (perhaps reluctantly, but ever hopeful) that The Master treated you well. On the rare occasion you came to him with a problem, he gave you advice on how to manage her moods, to bandage wounds in a way that could never change things between them but more than fixed the cracks in your own relationship.

With a little shrug, you tried to smile but received only a stony glare in response. Lightly, you continued, “I needed a friend to brag to. I had to tell someone about all the great things we have done and how alive you make me feel.”

Still she said nothing. The silence grew heavy and you couldn’t help but fill it. “The Doctor was willing to listen. That’s all there is between us. I chose you, and will choose you every day for the rest of my life if you let me. You have my heart, exclusively and forever, but I also have my friends and I will not let those bonds burn just to be with you. If you don’t accept that then you can drop me back on Earth and be done with it.”

The Master raised an eyebrow and you felt the tension flood from your muscles. You knew every single one of her micro-reactions now and this particular movement only ever came out in amusement. “Are you done?”

“Are you?”

“Droll.” She curled her finger, enticing you forward. Quick to obey, you closed the gap between you and simply allowed your eyes to drift shut as her nails danced across your cheek, curled around the back of your neck and held you tightly. Her lips graced past yours, barely a kiss but still enough to ignite desire within you. “Don’t keep secrets from me again, love.”

“Don’t go through my texts.”

You couldn’t quite gauge whether The Master was impressed by your lack of an answer or not but either way she released her grip around your throat and began to flitter around the console. A bright spark in her eyes, she peaked around the side of the large central column and said, “Quick hop to Bogororo to get someone to clean up this mess and then… Barcelona?”

“Why Barcelona? I’ve been before and it isn’t exactly cocktails on Saturn.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not the pitiful city on Earth. The _planet_ Barcelona. You know, the dogs have no noses! It’s great fun to tease them. It’s gonna be brilliant. Hold on tight.”


End file.
